In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead. Archaeology confirms that, in some burials, low-value coins were placed in, on, or near the mouth of the deceased, or next to the cremation urn containing their ashes. This has been taken to confirm that at least some aspects of Charon's mytheme are reflected in some Greek and Roman funeral practices, or else the coins function as a viaticum for the soul's journey. In Virgil's epic poem, Aeneid, the dead who could not pay the fee, and those who had received no funeral rites, had to wander the near shores of the Styx for one hundred years before they were allowed to cross the river.
In Etruscan mythology, Charun acted as one of the psychopompoi of the underworld. He is often portrayed with Vanth, a winged figure also associated with the underworld.
Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West is a 1985 epic historical novel by American author Cormac McCarthy, classified under the Western, or sometimes the anti-Western, genre. McCarthy's fifth book, it was published by Random House.
Dean Charles Ing was an American author, who usually wrote in the science fiction and techno-thriller genres. His novel The Ransom of Black Stealth One (1989) was a New York Times bestseller. He wrote more than 30 novels, and co-authored novels with his friends Jerry Pournelle, S. M. Stirling, and Leik Myrabo. Following the death of science fiction author Mack Reynolds in 1983, Ing was asked to finish several of Reynolds' uncompleted manuscripts.
Michele Sharon Jaffe is an American writer. She has authored novels in several genres, including historical romance, suspense thrillers, and novels for young adults.
Gary Paul Nabhan is an agricultural ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert Southwest. He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement.
Lodovico Dolce (1508/10–1568) was an Italian man of letters and theorist of painting. He was a broadly based Venetian humanist and prolific author, translator, and editor; he is now mostly remembered for his Dialogue on Painting or L'Aretino (1557), and for his involvement in artistic controversies of the day. He was a friend of Titian's, and often acted as in effect his public relations man.
Charles Howard Schmid Jr., also known as the Pied Piper of Tucson, was an American serial killer whose crimes were detailed by journalist Don Moser in an article featured in the March 4, 1966, issue of Life magazine. Schmid's criminal career later formed the basis for "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", a short story by Joyce Carol Oates. In 2008, The Library of America selected Moser's article for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American true crime literature.
Niccolò Perotti, also Perotto or Nicolaus Perottus was an Italian humanist and the author of one of the first modern Latin school grammars.
Leon Rene Pescheret, also known as Léon-René Pescheret was a British-born American designer, watercolorist, etcher, and illustrator.
Elizabeth Woody is an American Navajo/Warm Springs/Wasco/Yakama artist, author, and educator. In March 2016, she was the first Native American to be named poet laureate of Oregon by Governor Kate Brown.
Luis Alberto Urrea is a Mexican-American poet, novelist, and essayist.
Ron Clark Ball is an American thriller and suspense novelist from McLean, Virginia, and the author of Falcon on the Tower (2007), ISBN 978-0-615-14016-2. A former Officer and Naval Aviator who flew the F-14 Tomcat and served in the United States Navy during Operation Desert Storm, his fictional novel Falcon on the Tower is a lauded debut suspense thriller that tackles issues of radical Islamic global terrorism and the establishment of a fanatical Islamic Caliphate in the 21st Century, and the collision of that caliphate with the democracy of the Western free world. In addition to fiction, Ron Clark Ball has also written and lectured extensively on the increasing threat to National Security and damage to the Aerospace and Defense Industries by cyber attack using counterfeit and cloned electronic components and microchips manufactured in China.
Richard Setlowe was an American author and journalist best known for his suspense novels, which have enjoyed critical and academic recognition. His early career as a Navy officer in the Far East and a fascination with technology inform his thrillers. The Brink, published in 1976, was acclaimed as "the classic novel of the Era of Undeclared War" and was a finalist for the Ernest Hemingway Award for First Novels. The Experiment (1980) and The Haunting of Suzanna Blackwell (1984) venture into the realm of science fiction and the supernatural, while exploring deep personal themes. With The Black Sea (1991), a prescient narrative about a lone Navy frigate's encounter with terrorists, the novelist Clive Cussler commented, "Setlowe has to be the finest adventure novelist in the country today". The Sexual Occupation of Japan (1999) was lauded by English professor and novelist Les Standiford as "rivaling Michael Crichton in topicality, le Carre in authority, and Martin Cruz Smith in emotional depth". Setlowe's five novels to date have been translated into a dozen languages.
Steven James is the author of more than forty books, including the critically acclaimed Bowers Files, an eleven-book series of psychological thrillers that consists of Opening Moves, Every Crooked Path, Every Deadly Kiss, Every Wicked Man, The Pawn, The Rook, The Knight, The Bishop, The Queen, The King, and Checkmate. The series has received four Christy Awards and numerous other honors.
Peter T. Wild was a poet, historian, and professor of English at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Born in Northampton, Massachusetts, he grew up in and graduated from high school in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Wild worked as a rancher and firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service, and served as a lieutenant with the U.S. Army in Germany. Wild earned his M.F.A. in 1969 from the University of California, Irvine. He then began teaching for nearly 40 years and wrote over 2,000 poems; also, he edited or wrote some 80 fiction and non-fiction books, largely dealing with the American West. His 1973 volume of poetry, Cochise, a eulogy to the Chiricahua Apache Indians and their leader Cochise, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
The Seven Sins: The Tyrant Ascending is a 2008 novel by Jon Land and the first book in the Michael Tiranno series. The book tells the story of Michael Tiranno, beginning with his harsh childhood in Sicily to his rise to success in Las Vegas. A second novel, entitled Black Scorpion: The Tyrant Reborn, was released in 2015
Forrest Shreve was an internationally known American botanist. His professional career was devoted to the study of the distribution of vegetation as determined by soil and climate conditions. His contributions to the plant biology world set the groundwork for modern studies and his books are regarded as classics by botanists worldwide.
Judith Chafee nee Davidson Bloom (1932–1998) was an American architect known for her work on residential buildings in Arizona and for being a professor of architecture at the University of Arizona. She was a recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship to the American Academy in Rome during the middle of her career and was the first woman from Arizona to be named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Clara Lee Tanner was an American anthropologist, editor and art historian. She is known for studies of the arts and crafts of American Indians of the Southwest.
